EightBall

If it's not one thing, it's another, I swear..


So I just got finished fabricating my latest turbo setup and now my clutch is all F'd up. I installed a Spec Stage 4 unsprung ceramic last fall. I was very careful with following the proper break in procedure and the clutch now has about 5000 miles on it, all with no problems.

Now, literally as soon as I finished the new setup and drove the car around for the first time, the clutch felt COMPLETELY different. I don't know exactly how to describe it...

Before, while the clutch was working properly, full engagement would happen about halfway up the travel range. I was happy with this and there was no slippage and virtually no chatter, a very on/off type thing (as this clutch is supposed to be). Now, the thing engages just off the floor, if you can call it that. There is absolutely NO discernable engagement point, the car sort of just starts moving.

In addition, full power pulls can be made in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears. However, if I try to do the same in 4th gear or higher, once boost kicks in and the torque shoots up, the clutch chatters like CRAZY. It almost feels as though the clamping pressure between the pressure plate and flywheel has decreased.

There is no difficulty changing gears and there are no weird noises. I did not replace hydraulics so there is no air in the lines. Hydraulic fluid is at the proper height in the reservoir and the clutch was installed properly and all bolts torqued to spec.

This has me banging my head against the wall. I really want to get this damn thing tuned so I can bring it to the track but I just keep hitting road blocks, no pun intended.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY CLUTCH??? I'm thinking a loose pressure plate, or maybe a stuck and/or broken slave. I don't abuse my car so I would be very surprised if anything is broken due to misuse. Like I said, this is a case of fine one day, screwed to hell the next,with no tampering with that system anywhere in between.

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated, sorry for the long post.

OneFast97Z

Have you done the drill mod? How bout bleeding the system?

EightBall

I was under the impression that the drill mod only helped shifting at high RPM. If this is true, how would it affect holding the power under acceleration with the clutch pedal completely released?

chadtx01

iTrader: (5)

With the engagement point being so close to the floor, it almost sounds like the master cylinder went out. That happened to me under normal driving conditions, no WOT runs.

EightBall

Would this affect clamping power and reslut in chatter under acceleration?

Country Boy

iTrader: (24)

The chattering under load is it slipping. Try bleeding the hell out of the system.

EightBall

Alright, I will try that then. What could have happened to make it this way, though?

wrencher

iTrader: (2)

Exactly sounds like your powering thru it.
Not good, but newhydraulics & a different clutch would cure your problems.

EightBall

Just as an update... 5 months later I FINALLY had the time and space to look into this problem further only THIS weekend (I got married in August and moved 150 miles away from where I was living and now have a garage to work in, unlike before...)

PP bolts had come LOOSE as I had suspected originally, one to the point of being less than finger tight (I was able to twist it in both direction with my fingers). All but one bolt were totally loose.

I'm not sure why this happened since I made sure to torque the PP bolts to the flywheel per the proper specs when I installed the clutch. I unmounted the clutch to make sure no unusual wear had occurred and sure enough, I was careful enough and didn't cause any noticable damages.

I reinstalled the clutch assembly, being sure to torque the bolts correctly and use lots of loctite. Just thought I'd post in case any of you have similar problems you might know what to look for before trying 1000000000 other things first.